Policy initiatives for Artificial Intelligence-enabled government: An analysis of national strategies in Europe

Governments have been putting forward various proposals to stimulate and facilitate research on Artificial Intelligence (AI), develop new solutions, and adopt these technologies within their economy and society. Despite this enthusiasm, however, the adoption and deployment of AI technologies within public administrations face many barriers, limiting administrations from drawing on the benefits of these technologies. These barriers include the lack of quality data, ethical concerns, unawareness of what AI could mean, lack of expertise, legal limitations, the need for inter-organisational collaboration, and others. AI strategy documents describe plans and goals to overcome the barriers to introducing AI in societies. Drawing on an analysis of 26 AI national strategy documents in Europe analysed through the policy instrument lens, this study shows that there is a strong focus on initiatives to improve data-related aspects and collaboration with the private sector, and that there are limited initiatives to improve internal capacity or funding.